Tough Nut!

[James Cornell 10]

I was taking my driveshafts out last night for an engine rebuild and the O/S came off ok but the N/S was so tight that it did this...

 

 

That is a full size 1/2" Halfords Professional breaker bar...damn that tight :-)

[jackherer 543]

Did you do that with just the breaker bar itself or did you use a tube or something to give extra leverage?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

The cheap breaker bars don't last forever, I've bust a few in the past.

[James Cornell 10]

Big tube for extra leverage but I am still amazed at how bloody stubborn the thing is....lucky for me it is a lifetime guarantee one so they can give me a nice shiny new one :-)

[jackherer 543]

Don't tell Halfords you were using a tube, I'm pretty sure it says "DO NOT USE EXTENSIONS" on the side of them!

[James Cornell 10]

I am going to tell them I as undoing my wheel nuts and it snapped, I'll go In my work clothes (shirt/trousers) and play dumb :-)

[cheesegrater 43 1 Cars]

Impact gun FTW!

[Rich_p 23]

I'm going to have the same issue with my driveshaft nut. We couldn't budge it last time so ended up taking of the whole hub and shock at the same time!

[jackherer 543]

I've never had trouble with a 205 hubnut but for some reason Alfa ones have caused me all sorts of issues. We did one with a cutting torch in my mates garage and managed to do it without damaging the wheel bearing which we didn't expect. The second time I was at home so I drilled the nut several times at it's thinnest point which was actually easier than using the Oxy Acetylene cutter.

[unariciflocos 49 1 Cars]

Impact gun FTW!

 

I second that. Got an 850 Nm Hazet a month ago and it's amazing. Any suspension job now takes less than half the time.

[James Cornell 10]

I've got a Clarke 24v impact wrench but it did not touch it...I've replaced the bar and got a massive one now so let's see what happens tonight ...

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

If its that tight you may well just break another bar. As mentioned above carefully drill a couple of holes opposite each other down the side of the nut then a good wallop with a decent chisel will split the nut and you can wind it off with your fingers.

[farmer 328 1 Cars]

I have super sized tractor set to deal with them.

 

The bars are about double the thickness of normal breaker bars.

[Anthony 1,003]

Halfords 1/2" breaker bars aren't great - I think I've broken about 4 or 5 now over the years without using an extension pole, although usually I break the casting of the bar around the pivot rather than the 1/2" drive part that you have.

 

(and as anyone that's met me will confirm, I'm hardly exactly a muscle bound hulk!)

 

Never had an issue getting them replaced under warranty, but it's a bit frustrating.

[unariciflocos 49 1 Cars]

It will still be a half inch square taking all the force... unless you've gotten a one inch 32 socket.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Either the impact gun or oddly the 1.6 ones seem the worst my Torque multi plier, never use 1/2" stuff on these for that reason I;ve broken loads in the past, beware thou sometimes the splines rust into the hub's

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

I broke a small extension tightening mine up using a 306 beam on the end of the breaker bar, thought the threads had given way at first then when i did the other side it just fell off as i nipped it up

[Kane 34]

Exactly the same happened to me! I ended up using a cordless and small drill bit to drill into one side of the hub nut. Then increasing the drill bit size until it was large enough to fit a large flat headed screw driver in, I whacked it with a hammer a good few times and eventually it came off.

 

The biggest pain is the fact I spent a couple of hours with the breaker bar etc only to end up breaking tools where it only took me a matter of 10 minutes or so with the cordless

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

I found these hub nuts hard to replace unless i want to buy a bag full

[Kane 34]

I was lucky enough to have a few spare so drilling wasn't a problem but as you say if you don't have any spare maybe best getting an impact gun for the job

[James Cornell 10]

Well I have had a result with the new massive breaker bar and I have got the nut off so onwards with the engine rebuild!

[welshpug 1,661]

I found these hub nuts hard to replace unless i want to buy a bag full

dozens in each breakers yard..

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

yeah but they are already staked, ive resorted to swapping sides on mine so i can restake em

 

dealer wants £17 odd for a bag of five

Edited July 23, 2014 by Slo

[welshpug 1,661]

oh you mean the 1.6 or base model nuts, readily available at motorfactors

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

they all tell me round here sorry mate dealer only things like that, though one did say bring one in and we might be able to match it up